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In part two of
the article marketing series we looked at how to research and choose a great
topic for our article. As I've said
before research is vital so don't miss out this step, you really need to have
sniper like accuracy when writing articles.
I also showed you where to find out what the hot topics of the day are
in a particular niche.
Today we are
looking at actually producing those "hot" articles that will send heaps of traffic
to your site. I apologise for the length of the post but I wanted to give you guys as much quality, free, money making startegies as I could.
Writing quality
articles that get picked up by other sites is not about being Shakespeare. Far from it.
You simply have to follow a set formula that I'm going to share with you
today.
Most articles
that are submitted to directories don't even attempt to follow this formula and
so it's not surprising they never get picked up.
Most articles are put together in minutes and
submitted to hundreds of poor quality article directories just to get links
back to the author's site. Most of the
authors know their articles will never get read and in some cases are delighted
they don't, as they have put them together in such an unprofessional manor.
So although there
may be thousands of articles submitted daily to article sites only a small
percentage of these actually provide any quality content.
Article Marketing The Magic Formula
As I've
mentioned earlier in this series, article marketing is all about highlighting a
problem and offering the glimpse of a solution.
In fact the whole of internet marketing is about solving problems, in
simple terms giving people information they want.
So your
articles should always be about problems and your solutions.
Even the article headline (I will
talk about headlines in detail later) should highlight the problem, but should
do so in a focused
way. For example, whilst an overweight
person obviously wants to lose some of that weight, they will in all probability think about their
problems in a
much more specific way.
In other words,
rather than thinking about losing weight, they are far more likely to be concentrating on something like ‘losing belly fat' or ‘lose
underarm fat'. For this reason,
an article entitled ‘6 steps for burning that belly fat in fourteen days' is likely to be far more effective than one
with a more general, generic weight loss related title. Make sure that
your article describes the problem in detail and in depth, and that a least half of your article is
focused on that specific job.
Then, explain that you realize how
bad the problem is (you've been overweight
yourself, right?), and why your readers really must do something positive about solving the problem.
Make sure that you stress what will
happen if they do nothing to address the problem. For
example, if they are overweight, then they are likely to be less healthy than they would be if they
were slimmer, they might contract diabetes, have breathing difficulties, suffer
from heart disease and even die prematurely!
Then point out
that your webpage features one (or three) perfect and highly cost-effective solutions for these
problems.
The formula for
writing such articles is as old as the practice of writing articles itself. This formula is "Problem - Agitate - Solution".
So in your
article pose a question or state a problem, then agitate the problem and
finally offer a solution.
Do not write a mini book and don't show off with
lots of facts and figures, people want quick fixes not a reference manual. Follow
this pattern with every article that you create and you cannot go far wrong.
Article Marketing - The Structure
For most of the directory sites, an
article of between 500 and 750 words will be more than adequate.
Any less than that, and you risk leaving out vital information, but any
more than this is probably going to stretch the attention of your readers a little too far.
In fact, if you find that your article is over 750 words, then break it up into two
separate pieces.
When formatting the article make sure
you put between 55 and 65 characters per line to ensure the majority of
directories can publish it.
Don't make the article an in your
face sales pitch, otherwise other sites won't publish it. You should always
think in the back of your mind, if you were an Ezine would you be happy to
publish your article.
If the article is just a blatant
sales pitch for your site or an affiliate product, nobody will publish your
article. You get a chance to plug your
site later in the resource box which we will come back to later.
Make sure that you check the spelling
and grammar of your article, but do not lose any sleep over trying to
turn it into a work of literature!
Remember that, first and
foremost, you are providing information in your article, and as long as that
information is explained and can be clearly understood, then your article will achieve its
objective.
Of course, over time, your writing
skills will improve, but it is nevertheless critically important that you start
creating and publishing articles as soon as possible.
Worrying too much about your writing style or abilities is just about the fastest
way of killing your article writing career stone dead before it even
gets started!
I know I always bang on about this
but I'm not a writer, far from it, but I've created thousands of pages of
unique fresh content. When I started the
thought of writing one page terrified me, but then I realised the internet is
full of people with poor writing skills and they are making a fortune! I believe anyone can write an article, if you
can read one, you can write one. It's
that simple!
Article Marketing - Where to Get Inspiration From
Once you have written your first article, I'd
suggest you immediately start to write the second,
then the third, the fourth and so on.
The reason for doing this is that
by trying to write ‘batches' of articles at the same time, you will get into
the swing of it much more effectively, and the articles will get written much more quickly and efficiently as a result.
One of the easiest ways to get ideas
for your article (as well as Yahoo answers) is to manually search some of the
bigger article directories for your given subject.
Copy and paste the most relevant
articles into Word. Now search for 10
hints, tips or pieces of advice that will help your target niche. Write a paragraph on each tip (you already
have content in front of you that you can put in to your own words) and you
have one or maybe two articles.
How easy is that!
The internet is awash with
information and if you're clever you can use this to your advantage. We have taken the best bits of a number of
sources, re worded it and made a fantastic article. Well almost.
There are a couple of other techniques you want to follow before you
send your article flying around the internet.
Before we move on, one more bit of advice. If anything newsworthy happens in your niche produce an article about it quickly. Publishers love content that is current or "hot off the press", so keep an eye on the news in your sector. If you're in the weight loss sector it could be that a celebrity has just lost a lot of weight, new obesity figures are released or maybe there is some controversy regarding a current diet regime. A quick targeted article could be published by hundreds of sites, getting you thousands of visitors to your site!
Article Headlines 80% of The Result For 20% of The Effort
I'm sure you have heard of the 80/20
rule in sales. Basically 80% of your
sales come from 20% of your sales people.
This same rule applies to your article marketing success.
Your headline will be responsible for
80% of your success.
If you are an Ezine publisher and you're
looking for an article to publish do you think you would read every available
article? Not a chance.
The Ezine publisher is looking in an article
directory to save time, reading all the articles would be counter productive. They simply scan the headlines and read the
articles with the snappiest title.
So a good headline is vital if you
want your article to bring you stacks of visitors. But don't worry too much, most headlines out
there are complete garbage.
Your article is going to be light
reading and full of useful hints and tips, your headline should let the reader
know exactly what your article is about and pull them in to the article.
Here are some great proven
headlines:
7 Tips To Improve ....
10 Insider Secrets You Have To Know
About...
5 Deadly (Subject) Sins
9 Simple Steps To Catapult Your
Success In...
8 Huge Reasons Why...
How To Improve (Subject) In 7 Days
Introducing The Guaranteed Formula
To ...
11 Revolutionary Strategies To...
7 Shortcuts To (subject) Success
3 Magical Ways To Astonishing
(subject) Results
Now these headlines will all stand
out. You shouldn't just say "learn to be a
hypnotist". You would scream "10 Insider
Secrets Of Becoming a Hypnotist".
Which of the two hypnotist articles
would you read? I'm sure it would be the
second one, all because we took ten or fifteen minutes to think of an attention
grabbing headline.
Another subtle insider tip regarding
the headline. Capitalize the first
letter of each word, it's been proven to out sell non capitalized versions in a
big way. I'm not sure why but it is a
well known fact in the copywriting world.
By the way never capitalize the whole headline, this is a big turn off
for readers.
Article Marketing - Style & Language
Whilst you are writing the articles,
do not be tempted to stop and edit them as you go along.
It is far more effective to write as quickly as possible because by doing so, your ideas will be put down on paper much more fluently and fluidly. Only once the
article is finished to your satisfaction should you go
back and edit it for spelling, grammar and clarity.
Keep the sentences of your article
relatively short, and use language that an average teenager can be expected to understand. Remember that this is not intended to be a work of literature, so
do not write it as if you're trying
to make it into one.
Whenever there is a choice between a
simple word and more complex one, use the simple one, because by doing so, you
will make your article accessible and understandable to the widest possible audience.
Ask someone else
who is not particularly familiar with what you're doing to read your articles. Get them to answer these questions for you:
Can they understand your articles?
Are there are any places where they feel the
articles can be improved?
Does the article make them feel that they
would take the action that you're trying to
get your visitor to take (and is it clear how they can do so)?
If they answer
all these questions to your satisfaction, then your article is pretty much ready to go. If, however, they have any
suggestions or recommendations, do not necessarily dismiss them out of hand,
because they are in exactly the same position as the majority of your readers will be when
your article is published. Their viewpoint
is, therefore, extremely valid and valuable and if there are any significant
improvements that you can make, you should be more than willing to do so.
Once you have
some feedback, tweak your article and you're good to go. After you have done five or six of these, I promise you it
will become second nature.
So to recap on
our top tips for writing hot articles are
Always follow
the problem - agitate - solution formula
Don't write a
mini book, keep the article light and not fact heavy
Don't make your
article a sales pitch
500 - 750 words
is the target per article
Have 55 - 65 characters
per line so you get accepted by the article directories
Use other good
articles as your starting point
Keep sentences
and paragraphs short and use simple words
Spend time
creating a great headline
Capitalize the
first letter of each word in the headline
Don't edit as
you go along, it will take longer
Check spelling
and grammar once you have finished the article
Ask someone
else to read your article before submission and take on board their comments.
I hope you have
found these strategies useful. In the
next article we will look at the all important resource box at the bottom of
your article and look at actually publishing those articles.
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